Your First Border
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View guide: Your First Border
PDF guide · 10 pages
Tricky Spots, Sorted
Plants and fixes for shade, clay, dry, wet, windy and coastal gardens
Almost every garden has a spot where things struggle: the dark corner by the fence, the patch under the tree, the bit that floods every winter. Each chapter explains how to recognise the problem, what you can do to improve it, and plants that are happy there.
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Written for UK weather and soils
What's inside
- Shadepage 3
- Dry shade under treespage 4
- Heavy claypage 5
- Hot, dry and free-drainingpage 6
- Wet and boggy groundpage 7
- Windy and exposedpage 8
- By the coastpage 9
Who it's for
- Anyone with a corner where nothing seems to grow
- Gardens on heavy clay, chalk or sand
- Windy, coastal and shady gardens
Free extract
Which kind of shade do you have?
Shade isn't one thing. The plants that thrive in dappled light under birch trees are very different from those for the dark side of a house.
| Type of shade | How to recognise it | What grows |
|---|---|---|
| Part shade | 3 to 6 hours of direct sun a day, often morning or evening | A wide range: many 'sun' plants still flower well |
| Dappled shade | Light filtering through trees with small leaves | Woodland plants, spring flowers, ferns |
| Full shade | Less than 3 hours of direct sun, for example by a north-facing wall | Ferns, evergreen shrubs, plants grown for leaves |
| Dry shade | Under trees or by a wall where rain doesn't reach | The toughest spot, with its own chapter in the guide |
This is a short extract. The full guide has 10 pages.
Buy this guide for £4.99Questions and answers
Yes. All the plants named are widely sold in the UK. Check the label too, as some come in several varieties with different sizes.
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